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In 1984 Jeffrey Eugenides read the memoir of Herculine Barbin, a nineteenth-century French intersex person, and felt that it left out the body itself and what living in it felt like. The novel that grew from that gap took him nine years. Middlesex (2002) opens by calling on the Muse, as Homer does, to sing of a recessive mutation on the narrator’s fifth chromosome, then follows that gene from a village near Bursa, where a brother and sister flee the Greco-Turkish War and marry on the ship to America, to Detroit, where their grandchild Calliope grows up to become Cal. It won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides (1993), is narrated by the boys of 1970s Grosse Pointe who watched the five Lisbon sisters and never understood them. The ten writers below share his questions: how a body becomes a story, who gets to tell it, and what families hand down.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Family saga · Identity · Coming of age · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Jeffrey Eugenides, start with Herculine Barbin, whose memoir he read before writing Middlesex. Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928) follows a hero who lives for centuries and wakes up a woman, and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000) follows immigrant families across decades with the same comic omniscience. Further down is an intersex writer who argues with how his novel told that story.
10 authors like Jeffrey Eugenides
Where to start if you loved Jeffrey Eugenides
If you want the real story behind Middlesex, read Herculine Barbin.
The memoir is short, and the English edition includes the nineteenth-century documents.
If you want a change of sex as comedy and history, read Virginia Woolf.
Orlando (1928) is the novel to read straight after Middlesex.
If you want another immigrant saga, read Zadie Smith.
White Teeth (2000) has the same scope and the same jokes.
If you want the voice of the people Cal stands for, read Thea Hillman.
Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) (2008) answers the novel from life.
If you want Eugenides himself, start with The Virgin Suicides.
It is his short first novel (1993); then read Middlesex (2002), The Marriage Plot (2011) and the stories of Fresh Complaint (2017).
Frequently asked questions about authors like Jeffrey Eugenides
Who writes like Jeffrey Eugenides?
The closest are Herculine Barbin, whose memoir he read before writing Middlesex, Virginia Woolf, whose Orlando (1928) changes its hero’s sex, and Zadie Smith, whose White Teeth (2000) is another comic immigrant saga.
What should I read after Middlesex?
Try Woolf’s Orlando, the memoir of Herculine Barbin, or Thea Hillman’s Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) (2008).
Does Jeffrey Eugenides have a new book?
His most recent book is the story collection Fresh Complaint (2017). He has spoken of a fourth novel, but we found no title or date announced; he teaches creative writing at New York University.
Which Jeffrey Eugenides book should I read first?
Start with The Virgin Suicides (1993), the shortest, or go straight to Middlesex (2002), which won the Pulitzer Prize.
What inspired Middlesex?
Eugenides read Herculine Barbin’s memoir in 1984 and felt it left out the body and what living in it felt like; he spent nine years on the novel.
How did intersex readers respond to Middlesex?
Mostly with praise, though some were critical; Thea Hillman objected to the link the novel draws between incest and intersex.
Sources
- Jeffrey Eugenides — Wikipedia
- Middlesex (novel) — Wikipedia
- Herculine Barbin — Wikipedia
- Thea Hillman — Wikipedia
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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